Wire sculptures are installed on small loops – usually three of four per character.  Wire wall murals made for public areas like hotels, convention centers, or hospital waiting rooms may have more mounting loops to discourage vandalism. The art is mounted to the wall on wall anchors or wood screws. The loops hold the illustration about an inch away from the wall.

One of the loops is welded to the sculpture allowing the art to be balanced on a single finishing nail. The customer can hang the art this way—temporarily, to get used to it’s location – then mark the locations of all the loops and install wall anchors before permanently installing the piece.

Framed prints, photos, and oil paintings can get moldy in wet locations like shower areas, over hot tubs, and around indoor swimming pools. The mold collects behind them where the air is warm, wet, and stagnant.

Wire wall sculptures are mounted about a half inch away from the wall so air moves freely around and through the illustration. There are no spaces where mold can develop because the wire is mounted directly to the wall – not a board or canvas. The wire is powder coated with a mold resistant material.

This piece and others were purchased by an upscale resort hotel in the south of France and by five other customers because it was perfect for wet areas. One beach house owner had it powder coated with a special pigment that resisted salt spray.

When compared to other large works of art the wire wall sculptures I create leave a very small carbon footprint.

The material I use is grade 40 recycled steel wire. The same material used to make rebar. It’s soft and bendable. It has very little carbon in it.  It is made from recycled automobiles, appliances and construction materials in low-sulfur crude-oil burning furnaces using about 60% less energy than steel made from mined iron ore.

I use very little of the recycled steel. The sculptures are mostly space. Less than 2% of most pieces is metal.

I don’t use wood. I don’t mount the sculptures on canvas or paper or plywood and they don’t require a frame.

I paint the sculptures using a powder-coating process that utilizes only the magnetized pigment that adheres to the steel.  No solvents. No wasteful over-spray. Very little pigment is used because the sculptures are made with very little metal. The pigment is UV resistant reducing the need for future repainting.

The sculptures are very light. Shipping takes less energy. Packaging is less intensive and I use only recycled corrugated cardboard that can be recycled again.

We often recognize people by their facial profile without be conscious of it.  Tha'ts one of the things I explore in my drawings and wire wall art.. People exclaim: "That looks just like them," not realizing that I've mearly expressed a feature that they view unconsciously.

I do it by making a very accurate drawing from one photo or a few assembled photos. Next I remove lines until I have only the essence of the image.  In this cae that was the outline of the faces and characteristic hair.

This piece was made as a wedding gift.  They loved it. The drawing was made from two photos I found of them on Facebook.  The final wire wall mural is about 40 inches tall, made of 9 gauge steel wire and powder coated gloss black.